Apparently all the rumors of Greg Maddux’ athletic demise have been greatly exaggerated, and the predictions of his fall from the ranks of baseball’s elite were more than a bit premature. A month ago, the Braves’ ace was floating adrift, barely keeping his head above the .500 mark. And he had been hit hard enough that fans and media alike began to whisper that the winningest pitcher of this decade had lost his touch. But he refused to drown in a sea of self-doubt, tinkering and adjusting and finding his stride in time to reel off four straight wins heading into the All-Star break.

And even though he missed the Midsummer Classic for the first time since 1991, he’s coming out of the break pitching like an All-Star again. And when he toes the rubber at Yankee Stadium tonight, the Bombers will be facing the Maddux of old.

“[Panic] doesn’t help you pitch. The game’s hard enough as it is,” said Maddux, back in the NL Top 10 in wins (10), ERA (3.40) and innings (127). “When you believe in yourself, and you’re confident in what you do, it’s easier. When you don’t and you’re worried about the outcome, it’s not easy to do. What people are saying or writing or expecting, that doesn’t help you pitch. It never has.”

Rarely had Maddux’ pitching ever been in question. But he suffered through a disastrous May, going 0-3 with a fat 6.10 ERA, and was just 5-4 as late as June 11. Those numbers were shocking for a man whose 152 wins since 1991 are the most in baseball, and whose 2.24 ERA since ’92 is the lowest eight-year run since World War II. But Maddux, who has always worked the corners, refused to admit being squeezed by the tighter strike zone.

“I knew it wasn’t the strike zone. I never bought into that,” Maddux insisted. “It was just how I was pitching. I wasn’t pitching on the sides of the strike zone; I was pitching down the middle. And let’s face it; I’m not going to blow anybody away.

“If you do everything mechanically correct, it’s impossible for the ball not to go where you tell it. I was just out of synch. But even then I wasn’t pitching all that bad, and now that I’m pitching halfway decent, I’m not pitching as good as it looks. When you’re not going well it turns into a double down the line, and when you’re going good you get a double play.”

He’s going as good as it gets. He’s 5-1 with a sterling 0.86 ERA in his last six starts, and in his four-game winning streak his ERA is a microscopic 0.64. And now that he’s hitting the outside corners again, his home run total has dropped from 10 in the first 13 games to just one in his six-game run. In short, he’s pitching the way the Braves and the rest of the NL are used to seeing.

“It’s not much of a turnaround to be turned around,” said Atlanta pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who admitted that Maddux and Tom Glavine may have been getting squeezed by a tighter strike zone.

“Sometimes, when you creep an inch or two toward the middle you’re trying to accommodate. Early on that may have been the case, trying to work within the realm of what’s being called and what’s not. They have great touch, work East-West and rely on pinpoint control. Earlier in the year, they were trying to accommodate what’s been happening this year in baseball, but now they’ve adjusted. It’s a credit to them and what they’ve accomplished.”